Legal Advice Blog: Legal Advice, Case Insights, & Local Law Information

If you own a car in WV, OH or PA, state law requires that you carry liability insurance in certain minimum coverage limits. Most folks are aware of that fact. What folks often forget, however, are the other coverages that frequently appear in their auto insurance policies. One such often-overlooked coverage is medical payments, or “med pay” coverage. Simply put, med pay coverage serves to reimburse anyone who is riding in a covered automobile, and while riding in that automobile suffers an injury that requires medical treatment. You send your medical bills in to your insurance carrier, and assuming they are found to be reasonable and related to the accident that caused the injury, the insurance company will send you a check. It’s as simple as that. The maximum available med pay coverage can range from $500 up to $50,000 or more. What’s more, it isn’t expensive. It’s something I always recommend that my clients take advantage of. Even for folks who are covered by health insurance, med pay coverage can be very beneficial. Even where health insurance applies, how many times have you received a hefty bill from the hospital for co-pays or charges that aren’t covered by your policy? In almost every case, there is going to be a charge that you are responsible to pay. In that circumstance, and again assuming your treatment arose from an injury suffered while riding in a covered automobile, the med pay coverage can be a big, big help. There is, however, a little “hitch” you need to be aware of, and it’s happening more and more frequently these days. Let’s assume you are injured in an accident that is your own fault. You are taken to the emergency room, and a battery of tests is run. MRI exams, CT scans, X-Rays, the whole nine yards. You are discharged to go home, with a hospital bill that totals $7,500. If that hospital turns that bill into your health insurance company, they are going to be paid something around half of the total charge. That’s the deal hospitals negotiate with health insurance companies, and they are not allowed to bill you for the difference between what they charge and what your health insurer will pay. Of course, the hospitals would prefer to come up with a way to collect 100% of their charges up front. That’s where your med pay coverage comes in. In more and more cases, hospitals are sending their bills to your med pay carrier FIRST, before they submit to the health insurer. Why? Because they have no deal to accept a reduced price from the med pay carrier. In the case above, if their bill for treating you is $,7500, and you have sufficient med pay coverage limits, the hospital will collect the entire $7,500. They bill your health insurance company, and they collect half. They bill your med pay carrier, they collect 100%. Not hard to figure which way they want to go. So, here is the problem. Let’s say your hospital bill is $7,500, but your med pay coverage is only $2,000. The hospital first bills your auto carrier, collects the entire $2000 available under your med pay, and then submits the balance of $5,500 to your health insurer. You have an 80/20 health policy, so you owe a little over $1000 of the balance. Normally, you could use your med pay coverage to cover that. But in the case at hand, the hospital already exhausted your med pay benefits. If the hospital had billed your health insurer first (as you undoubtedly expected them to do), you would end up paying nothing yourself. But when they bill your med pay first, you are going to have to make that entire balance payment out of your own pocket, a difference of over $1,000. How can you avoid such a result? Contact your auto carrier as soon as possible after the accident, and advise them, IN WRITING, that any benefits available under your med pay coverage are to be paid directly to you. Should you have any questions about med pay or any other auto insurance coverages, feel free to contact any of the attorneys here at Bordas & Bordas.

Whether we like it or not – it is a well-known fact that the legal profession generally does not have a great reputation among the public. A quick google search will turn up hundreds of “lawyer jokes” that can be used at any time. When we think about why lawyers get such a bad rep there are a multitude of reasons. For example, lawyers defend the guilty, they often take on careers as politicians, and further, they are required to “cross-examine” witnesses which is often portrayed on tv as a public humiliation of some sort. However, one other reason that is not so often thought of, is the fact that many people generally do not get to know their lawyers and think of them only in their lawyer persona. In all fairness, trying to get to know your attorney may seem like an intimidating thought. Lawyers are generally busy individuals who usually attempt to get down to the facts when discussing your representation. However, behind the business attire and the serious manner in which lawyers discuss your matter, we are regular people just like you with interests and activities outside of the law. Here at Bordas & Bordas, all of our attorneys have different backgrounds and are involved in various groups outside of the office. What I’ve come to find is that allowing my clients to know a little bit about my personal background and interests helps them relate and further, encourages them to be more open and honest with me which in turn aids with my legal advocacy of them. One way our firm here at Bordas & Bordas has allowed the public to get to know our team members, both attorneys and staff alike, is through our Bordas Beats videos that are posted to Facebook every Monday. These videos are quick interviews of Bordas & Bordas employees that give you a quick peek into the interests of our team. For example, do we prefer the summer or winter, pizza or pasta, country or rock? A view of these videos will let you get to better know us and our lives outside of the firm and hopefully, will help relieve any concerns about your inability to relate or talk to an attorney.

There’s nothing worse for a corrupt politician than meeting someone who can’t be bought. It’s like watching a cat fall in a bathtub: you see first shock, and then anger, as though the world itself has betrayed him. A sellout simply assumes that everyone else is also selling and he bristles at a world where money is not the only currency. The Republicans designed Senate Bill 451 as straightforwardly as any protection racket. A five-percent raise for West Virginia’s educators, inextricably linked to a series of proposals to weaken her public schools. The text of the bill explicitly stated that if any part of its “omnibus” provisions were found unconstitutional or illegal, the raise would be taken away. “That’s a nice paycheck you’re getting, teach. Be a shame if something happened to it. . . .” It must have seemed like a sure thing for Senate President Mitch Carmichael and the GOP. “We’ll make them an offer they can’t refuse.” But it turns out that West Virginia’s teachers and school service personnel weren’t selling. On Tuesday, February 19 th, they went on strike for the second time in as many years. They had every reason to do so. Republicans filled the omnibus bill with poison pills. It contained provisions weakening the right of teachers to unionize and negotiate in the future. It diverted public money into private hands in the form of so-called charter schools that have allowed private businesses to walk away with hundreds of millions in tax dollars leaving students and communities with nothing. It sought to deprive veteran teachers of benefits they had earned over years of service. It’s not hard to figure out what this is all about. The three largest pots of money in state government are the roads, the schools, and Medicaid. That’s why your typical Republican idea involves taking money from one of these three pots out of the public’s hands and transferring it to some private businessman. Charters and other privatization schemes are the chief method for doing this in the education arena. Privatization of public schools yields predictable results. Wealthy families take full advantage, and concentrate their kids in schools with vast resources. Middle class families have to go into debt just to get a whiff of the middle-of-the-road schools. What little public money is left is what the poor kids get: the worst facilities, locations, lowest-paid staff, and then they are concentrated away from the lucky winners. And charters have ways of weeding out the kinds considered “undesirable” by the architects of these cash grabs. The Republicans thought they could buy all this hardship for West Virginia’s kids with a raise for the state’s educators, but the teachers and school service personnel declared on Monday evening that the kids and their schools were not for sale. The out-of-state organizations, like ALEC, that run these bills on a river of special interest money must be stunned to find a group of people they can’t pay off to get what they want. It’s pretty clear that part of Carmichael’s motivation to push this without the governor has to do with payback from last year’s strike. That’s why his version of the bill included the anti-union and anti-strike provisions. Republicans proposed those changes as a way of saying “we’ll negotiate in good faith as soon as you lay down your arms.” Agreeing to terms like that would be an unconditional surrender – accepting not only the plundering of the education budget this year, but in every year to come. Now that the strike has begun, West Virginians need to come together and understand the stakes. Killing the bad bill is not enough. The Legislature needs to reform education the right way, with students put first instead of private business. West Virginia’s teachers remain some of the lowest paid in the country and that needs to change. The raise must go through without the poison pills. Moreover, the PEIA system needs to fixed once and for all to guarantee its future solvency with adequate revenue. Even if the oil and gas drillers have to pay another point or two on their millions and billions, West Virginia’s kids deserve that money to fund their educations. The opioid epidemic and the poverty in West Virginia have made social workers and psychologists out of educators. New funds need to be appropriated to add counselors and trained professionals to help kids with drug issues in their homes cope at school so they can learn when they’re in class. The current ratio of students to counselors should be cut in half by adding enough new personnel so that every child can get the special help they require. Funding must also be increased for students with disabilities. It is a persistent injustice that children with physical, mental, or emotional disabilities are often left behind because politicians will not adequately fund the equipment needed to integrate those kids into regular classrooms. Research shows they can succeed if accommodations are made. Every student is a precious resource and our political leadership needs to treat each child as equally deserving and worthy of education. Before anyone says “well, how are we going to pay for all that,” remember that hundreds of millions of dollars in tax cuts for wealthy businesses are always at the top of the Republican agenda. They say we have the millions and millions to do that, so it stands to reason we have the money to do what’s right for West Virginia’s children. The kids have waited long enough for their priorities to be the top priorities. The educators and their strike represent the overwhelming majority of West Virginians’ interests. If teachers can’t strike to do what’s right for the schools and the children, how can any working people hope to stand up for better wages, decent hours, or affordable medical care? Everyone who works benefits when a strike succeeds. Let everyone in this state who earns a wage come together to support this strike for as long as it takes to secure the reforms we need. Some school days will be missed. But solidarity in the face of injustice and unity in support of what is right will be the best lesson West Virginia’s children ever learn. Christopher J. Regan is the former Vice Chair of the West Virginia Democratic Party and an attorney with Bordas & Bordas, PLLC in Wheeling.

As the father of a United States Marine and a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney I get particularly worked up, and offended, when I hear stories about government contractors making money at the expense of our troops, particularly when it involves defective equipment our troops rely upon for their safety. 3M Company (hereinafter “3M”) sold Dual-Ended Combat Arms Earplugs (CAEv2), which were standard issue for several branches of the armed services during foreign conflicts between 2003 to 2015. The two-sided earplugs were intended to perform two functions: when used in the closed or blocked (Olive End In) – they block out sound like traditional earplugs. When used in the open or unblocked (Yellow End In) they should block or significantly reduce loud impulse sounds such as gunfire and explosions, while still allowing the wearer to communicate with other soldiers. The earplugs were initially manufactured by Aearo Technologies which was acquired by 3M in 2008. Since 2000 Aearo Technologies knew that test results demonstrated that the noise reduction rating for the earplugs was 0, meaning the combat earplugs had no noise reduction benefits. Despite the earplugs failing safety test after safety test, 3M moved forward with selling the defective product to the US Government. 3M and Aearo Technologies manipulated the test results to meet the US Government’s required product standards. 3M was aware that the earplugs were not long enough to be properly inserted into a soldiers’ ear canal. Due to the incorrect length, the earplugs would become loose and ultimately become completely useless to the user. Due to these defective earplugs, there has been a noticeable increase in tinnitus (ringing or buzzing in the ears) and hearing loss, among our troops and veterans. 3M recently settled a False Claims Act claim* with the US Government, for $9.1 million dollars**, involving the sale of defectively designed combat earplugs. While the above settlement resolved the fraud claim brought by the government, that settlement does not provide compensation for those members of the military who suffered personal injury as a result of using the earplugs. Those suffering from hearing problems such a tinnitus and/or a hearing loss, as a result of the defective earplugs while in combat or in training, may be eligible for compensation separate and apart from the government’s settlement. * **

Several blogs on this page have talked about the limits that landowners run into when trying to get reasonable compensation or repairs for their property when affected by mine subsidence. While the West Virginia Supreme Court recently issued rulings which seem to provide even more protections to coal operators there was one glimmer of hope for individual landowners. West Virginia mining laws provide limited protections to landowners, but one such law was recently interpreted to make clear that it is the landowner that gets to decide whether the coal company will actual fix their home or merely pay them the decrease in value caused by the mining damage. The actual repairs are most often much more expensive than the decrease in value. Lobbyists for the coal industry have succeeded in getting members of our legislature to seek changes to the law giving that right to decide between fixing and/or paying a decreased value claim back to the coal companies. Hidden amongst a bill supposedly related to “Coal Mine Safety” is a provision that seeks to change what the WVSCA stated last year. The House version of the bill, HB 2875, seems to be stalled in committee, but there is rumor that the WV Senate may be presenting a similar bill before the deadline to submit bills runs. Most people find it unbelievable that a deed from over 100 years ago can include coal mining damage waivers that would still be enforced today. People have bought and built their dream homes only to have the ground literally ripped out from underneath of them. With all the protections the coal companies have, allowing a landowner to decide that they want their home fixed should not be on attack from our elected officials. Given the immense value the coal company gets from selling the coal under someone’s house, they should not be asking for more power to deprive those homeowners from recourse or repair.

Having officiated high school and college basketball for 25 years, I can sympathize with the official who missed the critical pass interference call in the recent NFC Championship game. For those who have avoided TV, radio, print media, the internet, and pretty much any other form of human contact over the past few weeks, allow me to explain. The game was tied at 20 with 1:45 remaining, and the Saints had the ball at the Rams’ 13 yard line, 3rd and 10. Drew Brees dropped back to pass, and lofted the ball toward receiver Tommy Lee Lewis, who had beaten the defense. As the ball approached, the Rams’ defensive back, who later admitted he knew a TD was about to happen, blew Lewis up. This wasn’t a case of arguable contact. It wasn’t a case where the two players were jostling with each other for position. The defender ran straight into Lewis, wiping him out. The ball fell incomplete, and everyone in the stadium was waiting for the flag. It never came. Regulation time expired with the score tied, and the Rams ended up winning in overtime. Saints fans, knowing they likely would have run down the clock and won the game with a chip-shot field goal had the penalty been called, were outraged. I was watching that game, and I was just as shocked as everyone else that the penalty was not called. I convinced myself that the Saints defense would be able to hold the Rams from scoring in the last minute of regulation. They didn’t. I was confident that Brees would lead his troops to a game-winning TD in overtime; instead, he threw an interception. A 57-yard field goal decided it: Rams go to the Super Bowl; Saints go fishing. When the game was over, I felt badly for the Saints players and their fans. I felt worse for the official responsible for the missed call. I would probably feel differently if I was a Saints fan, but I’m not. I’m an official (now retired), and like every other man or woman who has put on the stripes, I know what it feels like to kick an important call. It literally makes you sick to your stomach. I remember a sectional tournament game I was working years ago at Lincoln High School. The game was a mismatch; Lincoln was up by 25. The opponents had one very good player, we’ll call him #33, who had 4 personal fouls. I remember thinking how important it was to make sure his 5th foul was an obvious call. We didn’t want to foul him out on a borderline call. A few moments later, I was the lead official when #33 came barreling down the lane toward the hoop. A defender was there, in perfect position, not moving a muscle. This was going to be an easy charge, I thought. My God, he’s going to pancake that poor defender. #33 went airborne, and I knew what was coming. Just as the contact was happening, I blew my whistle and came out with the charging call. Flashy. Big time. Just watch me sell this one. Teddy Valentine got nothin’ on me. But there was one very big problem: at the very last moment, right before the contact I was anticipating, #33 turned his body in mid-air, and barely glanced off the defender’s shoulder. An obvious no-call, but I had already blown my whistle. I had already called the charge. I had already ended the season for #33. I am not exaggerating when I say that I felt like I could vomit, right there on the floor. The thought occurred to me that #33 might be a senior, whose basketball career had ended with a horrible call going against him. (After the game, when I approached him and his coach to apologize, I found out he was a junior. Whew!!) My gaffe happened with maybe 1,000 people watching. The NFL official in the Rams/Saints game kicked one in front of millions. Officials do what they do because they love the game. They work, they study, and they train, all with the intent to do the best job they can possibly do. No matter how much work we do; no matter how much we prepare, there are going to be calls that are missed. Views are blocked, concentration is interrupted, judgment is incorrect. It happens, and it will always happen. When it does, try to keep in mind that no one feels worse than the official who missed it. Image courtesy of USA Today FTW.

If you find yourself in the unfortunate predicament of being involved in a car wreck caused by another motorist, you may well find yourself in yet another unfortunate predicament when you attempt to obtain compensation for your injuries and damages. Namely, if the person who caused the wreck has insurance, that insurance company is not likely to do anything to try to reasonably, fairly, promptly and objectively settle your claim until and unless you file a lawsuit. The insurance company knows that if you file a lawsuit, you cannot name the insurance company in the suit. Rather, you have to name the person driving the vehicle that caused the wreck. Thus, what if you are involved in an accident in your neighborhood that is caused by one of your good friends or, for that matter, one of your relatives. Because the insurance company of your friend and/or relative knows that you don’t want to have to sue anyone to get your case reasonably resolved, let alone your friend or relative that caused the wreck, you will take pennies on the dollar for the value of your claim. It is unfortunate, but it is reality. When you file a lawsuit as a result of a wreck caused by a third person, you can only sue the person that caused the wreck, not that person’s insurance company. Indeed, if the case goes to trial, the jury is never told that the person who caused the wreck has insurance. Even though some jurors might recognize that insurance is most likely involved, they will have no idea how much insurance is available. Insurance companies intentionally try to mislead juries into thinking that the person who caused the wreck is going to be financially ruined by any verdict returned. It would be nice if juries were allowed to know that the vast majority of individuals who are sued have insurance to pay for any judgment that is returned. Unfortunately, the rules of evidence do not allow that to occur and that is not likely to change.

If you cannot resolve a dispute with a business or person and the amount in controversy is less than $10,000, you may want to look at filing your case in Magistrate Court. Every county in West Virginia has at least 2 magistrates. Some larger counties have more.  Magistrates are elected and do not have to be lawyers. When deciding whether to file your case in Magistrate Court, the following are some questions you may want to consider: 1. What kind of case do I have? – (i.e., is it criminal or civil) 2. Can I resolve my issue without going to court? – (i.e., can I talk with the person/business and come to an agreement before filing suit) 3. Can I handle my case without a lawyer? – (i.e., do I have questions about the process that I don’t understand, do I have questions about the amount in controversy, etc….) Some of the types of cases that can be filed in Magistrate Court are landlord tenant disputes, contractual disputes, property damage disputes, etc….  However, remember the amount in controversy must be less than $10,000.  Once you’ve considered some of these questions and decided to file suit in Magistrate Court, you should contact the magistrate office to obtain the necessary filing forms. Finally, remember, if you are unsure as to whether you should file in magistrate court or just feel unsure about the process, it is probably a good idea to initially consult with an attorney.  Often times they can be very helpful in determining if magistrate court is appropriate for your situation.

Even before you sign a contract to have an attorney represent you on a legal claim, you may have documents that relate to your claim and potential lawsuit. These could include accident or police reports, medical records and bills, or even notes that you have taken yourself to document what happened. Once you do meet with an attorney, you will encounter even more documents. You will typically receive a copy of your fee and representation agreement with your attorney and some initial information about how your case will proceed. As the lawsuit progresses, your lawyer will send you additional documents providing updates on the case or requesting information from you. Sometimes it can seem overwhelming to receive these letters and papers, but there are ways to keep everything organized and simplify the paperwork aspect of a lawsuit. The most important thing to do when you receive a letter or other document from your attorney is to read it carefully. This may seem obvious, but it is essential that you read the documents entirely and make sure that you understand them. If you do not understand, you should call your lawyer for clarification. Even if you think that you know what the letter is going to say, read it thoroughly because it might contain a request for you to call your lawyer, appear somewhere, or collect and provide information to the law firm. Once you have read the letter you’ve received carefully, and followed through with any requests contained in the letter, you may be tempted to throw the letter away. Instead, you should keep all of the documents that your lawyer sends you until your case is resolved. Keep all papers related to your case together, in one secure location that you will not forget about. Bordas & Bordas will give you a folder during your initial meeting with your lawyer for you to store documents related to your case. Anytime you receive documents, you should place them in the folder. That way you will have everything handy for meetings with your lawyer or to review anything that has happened in your case. In addition to keeping your documents organized and in one location, you should make sure that others are not able to go through those documents. Communications between you and your lawyer, including letters, are confidential and covered by the attorney-client privilege, and that privilege can be jeopardized if others become a part of the communications. Of course, if your spouse or other family member is a part of the lawsuit, that is fine for them to look at the letters, and there are other circumstances where it is fine for you to show the documents to outside people, such as your doctor, but in general, these documents should be kept to yourself. If you are ever questioning whether it is OK to show someone else documents related to your case, always ask your lawyer.

A federal judge overseeing lawsuits alleging Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer causes cancer on Monday tentatively allowed pieces of controversial evidence that the company had hoped to exclude from upcoming trials. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria during a hearing in a San Francisco federal court called his decision “probably most disappointing for Monsanto,” the Bayer unit that manufactures the world’s most widely used herbicide. The company denies allegations that glyphosate causes cancer and says decades of independent studies have shown the chemical to be safe for human use. Chhabria on Monday said plaintiffs could introduce some evidence of Monsanto’s alleged attempts to ghostwrite studies and influence the findings of scientists and regulators during the first phase of upcoming trials. He said documents which showed the company taking a position on the science or a study introduced during the first phase were “super relevant.” The company had hoped the judge would take a harder line on such evidence following a Jan. 3 order by Chhabria restricting evidence of corporate misconduct. At the time, that decision lifted Bayer’s shares nearly 7 percent. Monsanto had argued much of this evidence was a “sideshow” that would only distract jurors from the scientific evidence. Plaintiffs’ lawyers contended some evidence of corporate misconduct was inextricably linked to their scientific claims. The judge appeared to agree with them, saying it was difficult to draw the line between scientific evidence and allegations of corporate misconduct, and questioned whether it would be fair for the jury to not hear about the company’s alleged attempts to influence scientists. The parties did agree that other internal documents, including emails of Monsanto employees discussing lobbying efforts, do not belong in the initial trial phase. Under Chhabria’s order, that evidence would be allowed only if glyphosate was found to have caused plaintiff Edwin Hardeman’s cancer and the trial proceeded to a second phase to determine Bayer’s liability. U.S., China face major differences amid trade talks The order applies to Hardeman’s case, which is scheduled to go to trial on Feb. 25, and two other upcoming cases. There are some 620 Roundup cases before Chhabria, out of more than 9,300 nationwide. Plaintiffs’ lawyers believe corporate misconduct evidence was critical to a California state court jury’s August decision to award $289 million in a similar case. The verdict sent Bayer shares tumbling at the time, though the award was later reduced to $78 million and is under appeal.

The 2018 US Government shutdown turned out to be the longest one on record, and it should also be the last one. The US Government should not shut down. There are simply too many bad consequences suffered by Americans in all walks of life for shutdown politics to go on any longer. The ground stops at LaGuardia Airport and around the Northeast brought this most recent shutdown to an end on Friday, January 25 th. Our air traffic control system took stress after stress until finally it couldn’t take any more and it had to stop putting planes in the air, or risk catastrophe. But this is only the most visible consequence of shutdown politics. Long before the air traffic control system buckled, hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their paychecks. Some will never recover the money they earned. Some on the hard right celebrated the idea that “government workers” weren’t getting paid. “What does the government really do for us anyway?” But a closer look at those who were not paid for the entire month of January shows that they include FBI agents investigating crimes, Coast Guard men and women protecting our waterways and borders, and food inspectors ensuring that what we eat and drink is safe. And those are some of the workers who are expected to get backpay when a shutdown ends. Others are not so fortunate. In addition to hundreds of thousands of people who work directly for the Unites States Government, many more are contractors for the government. These include contractors providing logistic services to our police and military. They also include the employees of companies who provide food service at national museums and parks. Some are janitors, secretaries, some are laborers, some are accountants, and some are even lawyers. Those who are making their living doing contract work, keeping the United States running, are not guaranteed to receive any backpay. Shutdown politics unfolds on television like a spectacle and quickly gets wrapped up in who will win, the left, the right, the Democrats or the Republicans. Lost amidst the talking points and speech making by politicians is the simple fact that most Americans know that missing a month’s worth of pay can spell both short-term and long-term disaster for a family’s finances. In the short term, your paycheck may not be coming, but that doesn’t mean your credit cards, utility bills, doctor bills, and pharmacy bills don’t have to be paid. In the long term, one of the worst aspects of the modern American economy is when a family gets behind, even by a hundred dollars or a hundred and fifty dollars, the financial system tends to pile up late charges, fees, and penalties that escalate household debt to the point where far more than was borrowed (and a reasonable interest charge) is owed. Government shutdowns massively exacerbate this problem enriching banks and wealthy investors at the expense of ordinary, hardworking Americans. Just because there wasn’t an airline catastrophe, a terrorist attack, or an outbreak of foodborne illness this time around, doesn’t mean it’s an acceptable risk to run every time politicians are not getting along. The fundamental change that is required in our politics is that we negotiate only over the things we don’t agree on and that bargains and compromises are made between competing goods that each party believes in. What should not be allowed is to thrust upon the negotiating table something that nobody wants, like a government shutdown or a debt/default crisis, or some other method for inflicting pain on the country as a negotiating tool. It is an illegitimate form of political bargaining, akin to hostage taking. When political leaders insist that their method for getting what they want is going to be to inflict pain on everyone in the country until they get it, those leaders are failing the basic test of leadership. Politics in intended to be a forum for the peaceful resolution of differences through persuasion, bargaining, and compromising. Allowing it to devolve into the ugly scenario of government shutdown after government shutdown is a price that our country and its working families can no longer afford to pay.

When you hire a lawyer, and file a civil lawsuit, you will generally be given various deadlines that are initially set through the court before which your case is pending in what is called a “scheduling order.” Scheduling orders vary in content from court to court, but will all generally contain, at minimum, a date for the trial of your case, a date for a pre-trial conference in your case, and a date when the discovery in your case must be completed. Your lawyer should inform you of relevant dates set by the scheduling order in your case as soon as possible, so that you can mark your calendar and plan to be available for events that you must attend, such as the trial. During the course of your case, there may be other dates that you will need to be available, too, such as for a deposition, for an independent medical examination, or for mediation. Your lawyer’s office should communicate with you to set those date and should also remind you periodically of upcoming dates in your case that you must be aware of. However, sometimes dates in your case will change. There can be a number of reasons that this could happen, but sometimes it may seem confusing or frustrating to you when deadlines are pushed back or case events are cancelled on seemingly short notice. Here are some of the typical reasons that the dates in your civil lawsuit can change. The court may enter a new scheduling order that changes the previous trial date, pre-trial date, and other deadlines. As your case progresses, your lawyer may discover new facts or issues that can change some of the claims in your lawsuit or the types of information that will need to be gathered during discovery. The same can happen for the defendant. Either side may decide at some point as the lawsuit progresses that it should file various motions with the court asking the court to rule on certain issues, for example, ordering the other side to produce documents or information in discovery or add or dismiss certain claims or parties from the case. At times, these issues may be complex and require the court to reevaluate the time permitted to the parties to complete adequate discovery and prepare for trial, and the court may determine that more time is needed and move back the trial date and other case deadlines. Sometimes a party may specifically request that the court does this, or the parties may reach an agreement that more time is necessary and jointly ask the court to do this. If you learn that the scheduling order in your case has been changed, and the trial or other dates have been moved, you can always ask your lawyer for an explanation of why that happened and how this will affect your case. While it may seem frustrating to wait longer for your trial or have your case continue longer than you originally expected, most of the time, such changes are for the best in your case and your lawyer can explain why. There may be a stay entered in your case. At times, there may be what is called a “stay” entered in your case. This is a court ruling that essentially presses pause on the lawsuit while some other issue is resolved that greatly affects your case. Oftentimes, a stay occurs because an issue in your lawsuit has gone up on appeal to a higher court. There are other reasons for a stay as well. A stay can be one of the most frustrating things from the perspective of a plaintiff in a civil lawsuit because it is unclear when it will be over and when your case may be able to get back on track toward trial, but asking your lawyer to explain the reasons for the stay can help you better understand the issues in your case that need to be resolved before the case can proceed. Additionally, it is important to remember that just because a stay has been entered in your case does not mean that your lawyer has forgotten about your case or stopped working on it. Your lawyer should continue to review your file and conduct other work that will help them be prepared to pick right back up where they left off once the stay is lifted. Human events simply happen. Sometimes lawyers, judges, or others involved in your case get sick, have family emergencies, or have something else come up that necessitates rescheduling a case event. While every effort is made to keep case events as scheduled, there may be times where your deposition, mediation, or a court hearing may need to be postponed or rescheduled. Sometimes that reason may be because of you, such as if you were unexpectedly called to tend to a family emergency or if you were too ill to leave your house. Communication between your lawyer and you is essential in this type of situation, and this is one of the reasons it is important that your lawyer always have a reliable telephone number or email address to contact you. These are some of the typical reasons that the deadlines or dates in your civil lawsuit may change, but there can be others as well. Any time that you have a question about what is going on in your case, or why something has happened or changed, you should contact your attorney and ask. It is your case, and your lawyer is there to help your feel as comfortable as you can with what is happening and be able to plan for all of the important dates.